She does have the cuteness factor going for her

July 13, 2011 - Betsy Bethel

I feel like I complain about my difficulties in parenting my daughter a lot, so I'm going to switch gears and focus on ONE of the MANY positives of being Emma Skye's mom!

As the title of this blog suggests, 5-year-old Emma is sometimes cute beyond belief. "Cute" in this sense deals not with her physical appearance, although she has that in spades, as well! Rather, I'm talking about the "aawwww" moments and also the times when I shake my head in wonder and think: "Where'd that come from?"

I don't harbor illusions: I know ALL kids utter things that crack their parents up. A friend on Facebook today wrote that her one son (I think he's 4 or 5) saw the police go by and said. "Mom, it's the po po. Act cool." Her other son, who is around 9, told his mom that older women like him because an old woman in a store smiled and winked at him. "She thinks I'm hot," he said.

Hehehe!

My daughter's "cuteness" mostly comes in the form of the words she uses to describe things (Emma-isms), her imagination and her quick thinking.

Recent Emma-isms:

"Mom, can you turn the gurgles back on?" referring to the jets in a large bathtub.

On her first trip to a Lake Erie beach: "Look at the waves! They're so short!"

In the pool the other day: "I wish I could run across the top of the water like a basilisk lizard!" (yes such creatures exist and they "walk" on water)

Speaking of basilisk lizards — and thorny devils and proboscis monkeys and other odd creatures — Emma is addicted to "Wild Kratts," a hybrid cartoon-live action show on PBS Kids starring nature explorers Chris and Martin Kratt. Not only does she spout off everything she's learned and references it in everyday conversation (see basilisk lizard comment above), she has decided that Chris and Martin are her best friends and they go everywhere with her. These imaginary friends (or are they just invisible?) have beds in her room, as do their scientist pals Aviva, Cookie and Jimmy Z. They need drinks and snacks, eat dinner with us, take baths with her and follow behind our car in their airship HQ, the "Tortuga" (Emma gives them directions through an invisible walkie-talkie -- "Watch out, Chris and Martin, power lines ahead!").

In addition to playing "Wild Kratts," Emma's imagination seems boundless. And it's not just that she has a vast imagination inventory, but it's her nearly CONSTANT employment of it and the way she maneuvers between her make-believe worlds. One minute, a butterfly net is a butterfly net, the next it's a horse and then it's over her head because she's a ghost and then she's catching bad guys with it. All in the space of 5 minutes. I try to play with her but I'm always doing something wrong because she has changed the game on me. (Me: Oh no! It's a ghost! Emma: No, Moooommmm, I'm the bride and you're my groom. Where's my ring?")

This leads me to her "quick thinking" cuteness. As mentioned in recent post about how Emma knows what she wants and can be quite adept at getting it, here are a few recent examples:

Emma: Can (so-and-so) come over and play?

Me: No, I'm sorry, honey, but (so-and-so) has lice. It's contagious and I don't want you to get it.

Emma: Oh. But what if I had lice, too? Then she could come over, right?

— — —

Emma: I don't want to go back to nature camp! (after she had gotten in trouble for not listening to the teacher on a hike)

Me: You have to go back tomorrow, Emma.

Emma: Can't you come with me? You can go on the hike with me!

Me: No, Emma, I have to work.

Emma: I have an idea! You could come with me and take pictures for the newspaper!

Then there are just laugh-out-loud moments you get with a 5-year-old goofball running around the house. She uses funny voices, improvises songs with subjects ranging from her love for you to the cat giving itself a bath, dances with abandon and plays Wii sports with emphatic sound effects. When she's a mermaid in the bathtub, you have to find creative ways to wash her because she can't stand up on her tail (OK, sometimes I find humor in her antics and sometimes they frustrate the heck out of me).

And finally, one last funny from my daughter this afternoon:

Emma: Oh no! I left my stuffed animals at your work! What if someone steals them?

Me: They'll be fine. No one is going to steal them. If you believe they'll be fine, they'll be fine. You need to think positively, not negatively.